Engaging a younger generation of leaders and a discussion of the Cooperative Program were the topics when Baptist state convention presidents gathered March 19 to talk about the health of the Southern Baptist Convention with the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
SCBC president Rudy GrayThe meeting, held at the Georgia Baptist Missions and Ministry Center in Duluth, Ga., drew 26 of the state convention presidents, including Rudy Gray, president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of Utica Baptist Church, Seneca.
The convocation was the brainchild of Georgia Baptist Convention president Bucky Kennedy as a forum to determine how the national convention could position itself for revival and a “Great Commission resurgence” in the days ahead.
“I want us to build stronger relationships within our denomination and bring the younger generation along as we work and witness together,” SBC president Johnny Hunt told the state presidents. “We are indebted to the generation that championed the cause of the conservative resurgence. We must not ignore the generation that brought us to the dance, but we want to engage the present generation and bring them into the heart of our convention’s operations.”
Gray said the meeting confirmed what he “already had in my heart and mind.”
“In the future, our state and national conventions will need to change in order to stay vibrant and useful to the churches,” he said. “The younger generation is geared more toward relationships than programs. They are more interested in doing missions than in giving to a program, more motivated about kingdom work than about the denomination.
“They should be welcomed in our meetings and in our denomination and given places of responsibility. We need the younger generation to be involved, and we should see to it that they are.
“At the same time, we need the younger generation to be committed to the work of the convention.”
“Many felt that those under 40 would rally around something they believe in,” said Gray. “Our churches are autonomous, but we can be independent and at the same time cooperate to do evangelism, missions and the ongoing work of discipleship.”
Gray said the presidents agreed that a “better job” needs to be done educating Southern Baptists about how their convention works and what the Cooperative Program is. The presidents also agreed that the Cooperative Program should not be a requirement of fellowship or a litmus test for serving in the denomination.
Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., asked: “How do we measure faithfulness to the convention? Is giving 10 percent to the CP worthy of a badge of honor? Is giving less than 10 percent to the CP deserving of a badge of dishonor? I think we need to celebrate those churches that are growing and headed in the right direction.
“A church that is declining in numbers and giving – but committed to giving 10 percent of its undesignated receipts to the Cooperative Program – is headed in the wrong direction and will be giving less even though their percentage of giving is strong,” Hunt said. “But a church that gives only 3 percent, but is growing in numbers and giving – buying land, constructing buildings and adding staff – will consistently be increasing their dollar amount to the CP.”
Gray said that although two presidents told Hunt that they did not vote for him as SBC president, “everyone agreed that the ministry of Woodstock and its pastor was both missional and evangelistic.”
“No one questioned his commitment or right to do missions as he felt God was leading his church,” Gray said. “At the same time, we agreed that the Cooperative Program must be supported.”
Gray observed that churches “can and should have their own unique mission, but our churches must see the necessity of cooperating together through an instrument like the Cooperative Program.”
He said the Cooperative Program has served Baptists well for many years and, “with adjustments where adjustments are needed,” can continue to serve Baptists in the future.
Overall, the meeting was “productive and engaging,” Gray said. “We left on a high note, prayerfully optimistic that by God’s grace we can have a viable, Christ-honoring denomination.”
Gray said most of the presidents envision a Southern Baptist Convention 10 years from now as a “streamlined, church-planting, missionary-oriented force for Jesus Christ.”
– With reporting from Baptist Press